Welcome to Leith

2015

There might be one too many scenes of empty provocation, like when Dutton and his wife ask their son which n-words he’s learned. Still, the glib, sensationalist Vice-umentary I feared never comes to pass. The movie is merely Vice-ish; it’s following the lead of the anti-supremacist watchdogs at the Southern Poverty Law Center.

It’s a fascinating idea, and there are some amazing moments in the film, but I was left a little disappointed. I guess I was looking for more of a sense of the political temperature of the town before the insurgence of Cobb.

Like “Going Clear” and “Prophet’s Prey,” Michael Beach Nichols and Christopher K. Walker’s “Welcome to Leith,” about a tiny North Dakota town besieged by white supremacists and neo-Nazis, brings new life to old news stories, largely through touching and galvanizing personal testimonies.